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Driver faces charges in I-70 rollover

A California trucker faces charges after authorities allege he caused his semitrailer to roll on Interstate 70 near the Colorado-Utah line early Tuesday, scattering a load of tomatoes on the roadway and slowing traffic for roughly 10 hours.

Daniel C. Cox, 36, of Riverside, Calif., was driving east around mile marker 229 just before 4 a.m., about two miles from the Colorado border, when he descended a hill too fast and was unable to negotiate a curve in the roadway, according to Utah Highway Patrolman Cameron Roden.

Roden said the wrecked semitrailer was struck later by another vehicle, which also was eastbound on I-70. Two people, an adult and a child, were transported by ambulance to Moab’s Allen Memorial Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, Roden said. The vehicle was occupied by two adults and three children.

Cox, who suffered minor injuries, was hauling tomatoes from California to Loveland, Roden said. The wrecked semitrailer and its load closed both eastbound lanes for roughly two hours. Traffic moved in just one lane until the tomatoes were removed around 2 p.m., Roden said. Cox will be cited for undetermined traffic violations, Roden said.